I did find one that's why I am letting you know. I PERSONALLY can only speak from MY experience. There are decent people here and I have found a few. These lawyers have been good for me. I cannot say anymore

Nice to know that you are pleased with your advocate. Would you like to share your experience with us i.e. what sort of problem they handled, did you have any litigation, did the other side put up a fight etc. etc.?

I know many clients who are very pleased with their advocates because they had their Sale Contract signed and sealed and all the money paid same day i.e. everything went very smoothly. Based on such experience they recommended their advocates to many friends. Only years later they faced many problems e.g. the vendor was not the owner of the land or the vendor was refusing to hand over the title deeds and there was nothing they could do about it because they paid all the money before receiving the title deeds etc. etc.

I happen to know many lawyers and in fact I know too much hence my reluctance to recommend any.

We come across the same old recommendations usualy based on very little experience as I explained above in post no. 5.

If you want an advocate for conveyancing try to get an independent one and ask them to protect your interests first. That means that you must pay them even if there is no deal, otherwise they will compromise your interest to get a deal and get your money. Does that make sense?

If you want an advocate for litigation, look for an experienced one and normaly keep away from those involved with easy money "copy and paste" conveyancing jobs for high fees. Does that make sense?

Unfortunately many buyers become blind when they decide to buy and will send their common sense on holiday. Like some youngsters who fall in love

Here's the thing, most advocates are OK until it goes tits-up, then it's a shrug of the shoulders "what do you want me to do?"... To which the answer should be, "Do what I've already paid you for". Which leads to absolutely nothing, no action, no satisfaction and eventually you find that as you have no written contract with the lawyer there's nothing you can do about it because they have no duty of care - even though you thought you'd employed their professional services.

Although it is important to hire an efficient, reliable advocate and certainly one that is not in cahoots with the developer, it really has little bearing if the loopholes within the law remain wide open. It means that the advocates hands are often tied so that they are in the same uncompromising position as the buyer.

Can they MAKE builders hand over deeds? No. Even the courts appear to struggle to enforce this.

Can they make the builder finish the build? No they can negotiate and play mediator but judging by the case studies we read and the amount of derelict buildings dotted all over the island there is little success in this area.

Can they do anything about memorandums being placed on your paid for property? Sadly no. This can happen after the searches have been done.

Finally even if they successfully win in court it appears that any financial compensation awarded to you can be ignored.

In short even if advocates wanted to be "reliable" the system is against this.

1. The Specific Performance Law has not been tested in the High Court for its validity wrt off plan sales and those that require PTP i.e. in those cases where it is impossible to start litigation within two months of the contract.

2. The effect and priority of a memorandum over the buyer in prior registered cases has not been tested in the High Court.

3. Court awards can be enforced if the other side has assets or has sufficient earnings to force him to pay by monthly installments. So security condition in the contract should take priority but most sellers will reject this point blank as long as they can find buyers that accept their conditions. The advocates keep quiet on this because otherwise there will be no deal and no fee for the advocate. The buyer will simply go to another "good" advocate and have the contract signed and sealed within a day.

All text is copyrighted by Cyprus44. Photographs are copyrighted by their respective photographers.
For more information read our copyright policy, privacy policy and disclaimer.
This web page is served on 03 March 2015 at 22:36:30.